They think it’s all over… it is now

columbo

Hola. Hope you are all well. 

Apologies for not posting sooner. I was going to blog before the England/Germany game but I ended up going to London and getting caught up in London ways, including a private members club, a swimming pool and tequila. (read more here) 

So many things have happened at the World Cup since I last posted, I sincerely hope you’ve not been relying on me to keep you informed. If you have, all you really need to know is that England were knocked out 4-1 by Germany. 

I’d like to start this post by talking about the news that broke on Friday, that being Fabio Capello will be staying on as England manager despite England’s failings at the World Cup. I’ve heard and read pundits who’ve said that Fabio should have gone, I take a slightly different viewpoint. I not only think that Fabio should have remained as boss, I think he should have asked for a pay rise, maybe putting him on £8m a year. He should have gone into the FA and said, “I underestimated the level of pussies I had to work with, can you sort me out with more money”, or words to this effect. 

Maybe I’m being a little tongue-in-cheek but let’s face it what did people really expect from England at the World Cup? Admittedly it would have been nice if they’d looked as if they’d actually played football before, but we must remember that this bunch of players were the same bunch of players that failed to qualify for the Euros, just 2 years ago. 

There has been some clamour in the media that the way forward is to have an English, England manager. This view has been supported by cheeky chappy cockney manager Harry Redknapp, who also has said that if he was offered the job he would find it hard to turn down. Call me old-fashioned but it does seem like he might have a vested interest in saying this. It’d be like the head of BP saying, “I don’t think oil companies should be responsible for oil spillages, especially ones in the Gulf of Mexico”. 

But unless the mobile phone has properly scrambled my memory hasn’t this group of players (‘the Golden Generation’) worked under an English manager? In fact they’ve worked under all kinds of managers. If you go back to 2000 there was the passionate Englishman, in Kevin Keegan but he was deemed not good enough (by himself) and tactically naive (by everyone else). So in came Sven with his knowledge of European football, but the main criticism of Sven was he’d taken England as far as he could, 3 Quarter Finals. I can’t help wondering if in the near future we will look back on the Sven era as a glorious period in English football, up there with 1966 and 1990. Sven moved on and England were going to get Phil Scolari but he had a change of mind because he felt the British press would be too intrusive. I can’t believe that would have been the case. So then the FA had to choose between Steve McClaren, Alan Curbishley and Sam Allardyce, not what you would describe as rich pickings. In the end Steve McClaren got the nod, but he left after failing to take England to Euro 2008 and was nick-named ‘the wally with the brolly’ by the press. But he’s just won the Dutch league with FC Twente, so maybe just maybe he was as much let down by the players as he let them down. And now we have Fabio Capello, who after this tournament has been lambasted as someone who doesn’t know what he’s doing. Can this really be true of a man who has won 6 Serie A titles, 2 La ligas and a Champions League? (Harry Redknapp has 1 FA Cup to show for his 27yrs of management, if you’re interested).

It seems to me, the one consistent under all these managers is the players. I’m not Columbo but the evidence suggests they are not good enough. I know no one wants to admit to this but you can’t just ignore the evidence, unless you’re Jeremy Clarkson and the subject is Global Warming. 

Because England’s displays couldn’t just be due to them not being that good, journalists have reported that there had been factions and splits within the camp. It’s been alleged that John Terry resented the fact Steven Gerrard was captain and not him. If this was true, may I suggest it might have proved more productive if  John Terry had concentrated more on defending, then maybe Germany wouldn’t have scored straight from a goal kick. To be fair we will probably never know what went on in South Africa, well not until one of the players brings out an autobiography. I for one can’t wait to read the Steven Warnock story. 

Anyway, I didn’t want to end on too much of a downer, so I thought I’d look at the problems of another nation that was at the World Cup, because we all know no matter how bad you’re doing you can always take solace in the misery of others. So let’s look to Nigeria, where their President Goodluck Jonathan has banned their national team from playing International football for 2 years so things can be sorted after their poor showing at the World Cup. Can you imagine our government doing this? If they did, something tells David Cameron would leave the task of telling Fabio Capello, to his ‘deputy’ Nick Clegg. 

Til next time, stay safe!

Tags: fabio capello, goodluck jonathan, john terry, kevin keegan, steve mcclaren, steven gerrard, sven goran eriksson, world cup